Day 86: It's Not About Perfect

“Its’s not about perfect. It’s about effort. And when you bring that effort every single day, that’s where transformation happens. That’s how change occurs.”
~Jillian Michaels~

I found a couple versions of this quote but most attribute it to Jillian, so I’ll go with that. She’s so right that it’s not about perfect. In the beginning of this journey I was setting unrealistic goals and expecting perfection from myself. I’ve come to realize that life will interfere with even the tiniest goal and if all your goals leave no room for that you will quickly lose hope and give up. Having unreachable goals is just as bad as having no goals at all. I’m not too worried about reaching specific numbers on the scale as long as it keeps moving in the right direction. Do I want it to happen faster ? Of course - who wouldn’t ? I focus on eating the way the program is teaching me and getting as much exercise as I possibly can. Yes, I’m upset that cold #2 has derailed my treadmill exercise but once I am better I will be right back at it. Truthfully, I’m surprised the past 85 days have been so effortless. When I signed up for Nutrisystem I had NO idea what to expect. I didn’t know if I’d like the food. ( I do ! ) I was SURE I couldn’t give up cream and sugar in my coffee. ( I did ! ) and I was afraid I would be starving all the time ( I’m not ) or wouldn’t lose much weight. ( 41 pounds gone ! ) So it’s working great for me and I’m glad I’ve stuck with it.

Breakfast today was a 2.1 ounce 180 calorie cinnamon roll with hazelnut coffee. My 2nd cup was french vanilla. I never had my breakfast Power Fuel. My morning snack was a 155 calorie chocolate shake with peanut butter powder and a 90 calorie veggie cake. Lunch was a 1.7 ounce 190 calorie cup of spicy kung pao noodles. I added about 5 ounces of water to it so the cooked weight is probably closer to 8 or 9 ounces once the noodles expand. I had raw carrots and cottage cheese (80 calories) with it. My afternoon snack was 3 wedges of Laughing Cow light cheese (90 calories) and some reduced fat wheat thins (90 calories). I needed some comfort food tonight so dinner was a 9.5 ounce 260 calorie roasted turkey medallions with mashed potatoes & gravy. I also had a chef salad with shredded carrots and fat free dressing (about 30 calories for the dressing). My evening snack is going to be a 1.7 ounce 140 calorie slice of chocolate cake. So I will end the day at about 1308 calories.

I received my frozen a la carte order this morning so my freezer is jam packed with all of my favorite things ! I took inventory and I have enough food to last until mid-May, so I’ve delayed shipment of my next order by 2 weeks. It was due to ship on 4-11. I guess I miss my evening snack a lot because I have more of those than anything else ! I guess sorting, storing and inventorying the food is my effort for the day. For me, Saturday is a good day to decompress from the work week. If I wasn’t sick I probably would have gone to visit my mom, but I’d rather not expose her to my germs. I had zero ambition and pretty much zero energy today.

I woke up a few different times this morning but I finally got up at 8 am. I didn’t go far - I moved from the bed to the couch ! I don’t know if I had a fever last night as it seems I don’t have a thermometer, but I feel a bit better today. I’m still coughing and I’m still stuffed up but that’s your typical cold. It was a dreary rainy day so it was a perfect day to stay home on the couch. The movie selection on TCM pretty much sucked today and after watching an awful sci-fi movie called “Morgan” (on FX I think) I switched over to listening to Pandora until the Twilight movies came on FX at 4:30. I have them on DVD but I was too lazy to get up and load the DVD player. I’m pretty tired, maybe because I’ve been sitting on the couch doing nothing most of the day ? LOL ! So I’ll be heading for a hot shower and bed pretty soon. I didn’t take any cold medicines today but I plan to take them when I go to bed. That should help me get some sleep.